


Braids

by pawn_vs_player



Series: Braids Verse [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Mates, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Cuddling Gabriel/Sam Winchester, Fluff and Angst, Gabriel Needs a Hug, Gabriel braids Sam's hair, Gabriel is Loki, Implied Castiel/Dean Winchester, M/M, Sam With Braids, That's it that's the plot, and has flashbacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 20:38:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6023833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pawn_vs_player/pseuds/pawn_vs_player
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel braids Sam's hair and has flashbacks.<br/>Sam is a good boyfriend.<br/>There are cuddles, and maybe a proposal hidden in there somewhere. Maybe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Braids

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Itch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Itch/gifts).



> So... I'm just going to be posting all my tumblr SPN fics over here.  
> There's a companion piece to this, 'Significance'. It should be up by tomorrow.

It is a known fact that Gabriel _loves_ Sam’s hair. Dean claims he has a fixation, but really, is it so bad that Sam’s long (for this time period) hair is both a nostalgic callback to the days when Gabriel was Loki, and a wonderful way to make Sam groan?

Not bad at all, in Gabriel’s solemn opinion. (And he’s an archangel, his opinion gets precedence over a self-righteous hunter’s.)

(Okay so maybe he’s still a little annoyed with Dean for what he pulled last week with the syrup and the dye. Maybe. Just a bit.)

Anyway, Sam’s hair…

Gabriel has joked, in the past, about braiding it. Dean has as well; even Cas, once he understood the humor, has made a quip or two. Sam had rolled his eyes and moved on.

But this time, he doesn’t. Instead, when Gabriel makes a veiled reference to the time of the Norsemen, ( _his_ time,) and mentions how the men often wore their hair in long, decorated braids, Sam simply looks at him and asks, “Do you want to?”

“What?” Gabriel blinks.

“Do you want to do that to my hair?” Sam’s eyes are serious and calm, refusing to let Gabriel look away. They make Gabriel _think_ about what he’s really asking for here.

Gabriel licks his lips. “Uh… yeah, actually, I- yeah, I want to.”

Sam smiles slightly and scoots back on the couch. “Here good?”

Gabriel blinks again before climbing over the back of the couch and settling down behind his boyfriend. “Yeah, fine.”

He shakes out his hands and lets out a long breath. Then he sinks his fingers into Sam’s hair.

This, this part, this isn’t new. He loves playing with Sam’s hair, rubbing his head and massaging his scalp until Sam is practically purring, but… for all the jokes and veiled almost-requests, he’s never tried to _do_ anything with Sam’s hair.

But it’s not like he hasn’t done it for anyone else.

_((a little girl, half blue and exposed bone, half pink and living flesh, and she smiles at him before they take her away, and then she’s screaming his name))_

Gabriel shakes himself. _She’s safe now. You’re with Sam. Focus._

But he doesn’t need to focus. His fingers move on their own, separating strands and wrapping them neatly around one another and tugging tight to keep them in place, flipping the finished braid to the side when it’s done to work on the next one. Little hair elastics keep popping out of the air just as he needs them, so he doesn’t have to move to get any, or knot the ends of Sam’s hair to keep the braids in place _((like he used to, when he learned how to do this))_. 

He drifts in his head instead of paying attention, remembering the first braids he’d ever done; how they were so terrible, and how his teacher had laughed and then undid them with magic so Gabriel _(Loki)_ could try again. He remembers the first time he got them right, and how her hands had been gentle in his although he’d seen her break rocks with those same fingers.

Somewhere between remembering her and looking at Sam, he wonders if maybe he’ll get to keep Sam. He lost Angrboda and Sigyn and his children (and he was incredibly lucky to even see them again); he wonders if Sam will fall to the same fate.

 _But he can wield Mjolnir,_ he reminds himself, thinking of that conversation, on a lonely night when Dean and Cas were holed up in Dean’s room and Sam was talking to Gabriel in the library for lack of anything better to do. _He’s worthy of Asgard; surely they won’t kill him for loving me. They wouldn’t go after Thor for befriending me, and he let me get away with far more than Sam has._

It’s a slim hope, and Gabriel knows it. But it’s the best he has.

“Gabriel?”

Sam’s voice is concerned. Gabriel blinks, and realizes he’s been braiding and unbraiding and re-braiding a single strand. “You okay?”

Gabriel shakes himself and finishes the braid, smoothing it down with his fingers. “’M fine, Sam. Just… one more thing…”

Sam hesitates, then relaxes back into Gabriel. Gabriel swallows.

The idea hit him out of nowhere _((somewhere but he doesn’t want to admit it)),_ and now it won’t go away. He raises his hand, manifests one wing for a second, just long enough to pull a feather. It hurts, but it’s hardly the worst he’s ever felt. He winces slightly and undoes the lower half of one of Sam’s braids, one near the back and to the right, and carefully rebraids the soft brown hair around the golden feather. It glows softly like there’s a tiny sun inside it, and Gabriel rubs one finger across it thoughtfully, thinking about how his gold looks in Sam’s brown.

Sam shifts as the feather brushes his scalp. “Gabriel? What did…” His hand goes back, Gabriel’s hand moving away automatically, and Sam’s breath catches when he finds the feather. Gabriel stills, tense with nerves. 

Sam lets out all his air in a rush and turns on the couch to look Gabriel in the eyes, and Gabriel is relieved to find his stunned smile.

“You put your feather in my hair?” Sam asks, and Gabriel nods.

“I, um, if you don’t like it I can take it out-”

Sam pulls Gabriel into his lap, buries his face in the archangel’s hair. “I love it,” he murmurs. Gabriel smiles hesitantly into Sam’s neck, suppressing his little shiver at the feeling of Sam’s braids brushing against his neck. _((He remembers that feeling.))_  “Thank you.”

Gabriel’s smile solidifies when Sam starts pressing little kisses all over his head. Sam had figured out pretty quick that kissing Gabriel’s forehead or temples would make the archangel melt faster than butter in a pan, and he uses it to great advantage. Gabriel hums happily and nuzzles the side of Sam’s neck, shifting to get more comfortable in Sam’s lap.

They stay there, wrapped up in each other, for the rest of the afternoon. Dean opens his mouth to tease Sam about the braids when he and Cas come back, but Cas puts a quelling hand on Dean’s shoulder, makes eye contact for a long moment, and Dean closes his mouth.

Dean’s eyes stray to the feather several times during their dinner, glowing brighter in the light, but he doesn’t say anything. Cas looks at it too, with deep eyes and a little smile quirking the side of his mouth, and Gabriel can’t quite find it in himself to be annoyed with his little brother’s perceptiveness.

Gabriel takes most of the braids out that night; they’re uncomfortable to sleep in, the first few times, especially when they’re all over your head. Sam insists on keeping the one with the feather, though, and looking into Sam’s eyes, Gabriel doesn’t argue too hard.

Gabriel curls into Sam’s chest and presses his head against Sam’s heart.

He falls asleep with the reassuring _th-thump th-thump_ of Sam’s heartbeat, and he wakes up to his own honey-colored feather glittering in the morning light in Sam’s hair.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment, please!


End file.
